Texas Students Push Back After School District Covers Ten Commandments Following Complaint

O’DONNELL, Texas — Students at a high school in Texas are pushing back after a prominent Church-State separation group lodged a complaint about a Ten Commandments painting hung on the wall, which resulted in the school district covering the display.

“I made the decision to cover it up until I made a more informed decision about what I should do, because I don’t want to harm the district or cause any controversy or anything,” O’Donnell Independent School District Dr. Cathy Amonett told reporters on Friday.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation had sent a letter to Amonett this week demanding that the district remove the painting, as well as a Scripture that had also been displayed on the wall at O’Donnell High School.

“By displaying a religious message in its entryway, O’Donnell ISD infringes on its students’ constitutionally protected religious freedom,” the letter read. “By endorsing a religious message, the school district violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

Following receipt of the correspondence, which was based upon an unidentified complainant, Amonett had the painted covered, as well as the quote of Isaiah 40:31. But students allegedly tore the black paper down in protest. The paintings have now been recovered with the American flag.

And now, students are pushing back in support of the display, posting scores of Scriptures on the wall.

“Students have put verses on sticky notes just around the hallways and stuff. So two verses and Commandments they’ve been complaining about turned into 70 verses,” student Sebastian Pedroza told local television station KCBD.

“I feel like they should be up and they should represent us because it’s what we believe in,” student Brooklyn Wilkie also commented to Fox34. “It’s God; it’s what we believe in. We’re not going to keep quiet about it.”

Amonett said that she backs the students and shares in their frustration.

“I’m proud of my kids. I think that they have shown the kind of people that they are,” she told the outlet. “They believe in the Ten Commandments and they want to stand up for it, and I’m proud of them for that.”

“The next step is I’m going to do some more investigation, and get with the school leadership, and the community, and the students, and we will decide what we need to do to protect the school, while also honoring it,” Amonett explained.

FFRF is still threatening a lawsuit if the district decides to keep the paintings.

“At this point, we hope that the superintendent will do the right thing and remove the religious display, which violates the separation of church and state and also the right of conscience of each student at the school,” attorney Sam Grover said in a statement. “If the school district chooses to keep the display, it is exposing itself to a potential lawsuit that could cost the school district and taxpayers dearly.”

Become a Christian News Network Supporter...

Dear Reader, has ChristianNews.net been of benefit and a blessing to you? For many years now, the Lord has seen fit to use this small news outlet as a strong influential resource in keeping Christians informed on current events from a Biblical worldview. Striving to bring you the news without compromise and with Christ in focus, we press on despite recent changes in Facebook and Google's algorithms, which has limited our readership, and, as a result, has affected operational site revenue. If you have benefited from our news coverage, would you please prayerfully consider becoming a Christian News Network supporter by clicking here to make a one-time or monthly donation to help keep the truth widely and freely published and distributed?May Christ continue to be exalted through this work!

Commenting Guidelines: We welcome readers to comment on stories, but we will not tolerate remarks containing profanity, vulgarity, violence, blasphemy, all caps or any discourteous behavior. Thank you for your cooperation in maintaining a respectful public environment where readers can engage in reasonable discussion about matters affecting our nation and our world.Read More →

BW

The Supreme Court ruled against the Ten Commandments in public schools 36 years ago in Stone v. Graham.

Josey

pffft…Time to change that law

uninvitedguest

Then get started. Until then, the law stands

BW

It’s a court ruling, not a law, but in any case, why would you WANT public schools to promote religion? It won’t necessarily be yours, you know.

Crusader777

The SCOTUS has Moses and the 10 Commandment engraved in stone for all to see right on the front of the building.
Crooked Communist Activist judges have been destroying our moral foundations for decades and it is time for all Americans to stand up against this tyranny.
The Law states Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion.

BW

The SCOTUS has Moses and the 10 Commandment engraved in stone for all to see right on the front of the building.

On the back (the east pediment), not the front, and it’s not just Moses, but Moses, Confucius and Solon, plus groups on the left and right, including the tortoise and hare. And the tablets are blank.

Your dishonest misrepresentation of the supreme court as promoting some kind of Christian supremacy is noted.

You can also find Muhammad and Zeus in the supreme court, and many other historical and mythical figures.

Amos Moses

When they tell you that you are not allowed to speak your own words …… it is time to speak them LOUDER ……………….

Croquet_Player

Students may pray at school, alone or in groups, bring religious texts to class, and discuss and practice their faith as they like. Schools may not endorse any particular faith. They will have to remove the painting, or face an expensive lawsuit which they will certainly lose.

Liz Litts

FFRF is a bunch of play ground bullies–tell them to bring it on and they turn and run. Tell them NO!!!

Ambulance Chaser

No, if you defy them, they sue you.

Edward Silha

School districts that violate the first amendment prohibition against government promoting any particular or religion in general have been sued successfully by the FFRF. In the process the school district spends scarce education resources defending an unconstitutional position and having to reimburse the FFRF for legal expenses (anywhere from ten thousand to a couple hundred thousand dollars. Is that where you want your school district to spend your tax dollars?

Nidalap

Heh. Before this, the students would have very likely walked right past the painting and scripture with nary a thought spared for them.
Looks like there’s MORE Christian thought going around that school than ever before!
Nice try, FFRF. 🙂

Ambulance Chaser

You might have a point, if the FFRF’s goal was to stop Christian thought in the school.

Nidalap

Indeed I might, AC. Indeed I might! 🙂

Reason2012

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

James 5:16 “.. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

If we instead continue to allow God to be removed from our country, it’d hardly be surprised that our country then continues to be destroyed from within.

DoorknobHead

GOD IS A SEXY “REALITY” SHOW CHARACTER
What I hear you saying is that the country destroys itself from within if we all do not believe in the same myth. That is why I think you are saying. Maybe if the country started with a different myth we would not be where we are today. Hindu myths? Buddhist myths? Norse myths?

Maybe it would be easier if we all believed in trying to correctly understand reality instead. Maybe if we all learned about how to think about how we think, and about the human biases that we all have, and how to countermeasure those human biases then we would all be better off.

Admittedly not very sexy to not believe in a single all powerful monster that controls everything. I guess there is are reasons people like to watch “reality shows” instead of to think about reality.

Reason2012

No, nothing happens for not believing in a myth. But rejecting the God who created us all and instead living in willful sin does come with its consequences, and we’ve been experiencing them the past 10 to 20 years, and it’s getting worse.

It’s “reality” to believe populations of fish, over generations, can eventually learn to read / write and speak in countless languages, publish books, pass laws on morals, arrest people and more, if you just add the magic ingredient of “millions of years”? How so?

I would think again. As Jesus said, which even most churches that are false will avoid pointing out to those who go there:

Luke 12:4-5 “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

Live forever, friend – not temporarily for things of this world.

DoorknobHead

I AM SAVED!
So bad things happen for rejecting a god that created us? It is a good thing that god(s), and therefore sin, are emergent concepts that were naturally developed through evolution as by-products of cognitive mechanisms that evolved for other purposes! That is good news. Thanx

THE IRON CHARIOT OF TODAY: THE FUNCTIONAL MRI
There are many parts of the brain that have been identified by the National Institute of Health using functional MRIs that shows that the source of religiosity comes from the same parts of the brain that makes us successfully evolved social animals. For example, people evolved attachment systems between children and adults, and between the individual and the tribe to better survive. These same systems light up for the religious for religious reasons, and in non religious people for the original evolved social reasons. There is more and more science showing that god is the imaginary sky-daddy that he seems. If you want to put your baby-blanket of security, your hi-jacked thumb-sucking of attachment for parents and imaginary friend worship onto the card-table to maybe learn more, you could see the video “Why We Believe in Gods – Andy Thomson – American Atheists 09.” Religion uses fear to scare people into continued belief in things based on faith (belief without evidence; imaginary friends) so I would not be surprised if you didn’t take me up on this offer. You are probably protected from disbelief by something called the Backfire Effect: That is your beliefs will only get stronger is any disconfirming evidence to your beliefs is presented, so you are safe in not losing your voodoo. Plus, your mind can have fun defending the beliefs it holds without evidence by making up reasons why all the information in the video is bogus.

THIS COMMENT WILL BACKFIRE
The Backfire Effect is a human bias similar to another human bias called Declinism. Your feeling that things are getting worse in the last 10-20 years is often referred to as Declinism bias in which we all tend view the past favorably and the future negatively. All humans can suffer from it.

THE EASY PATH
You do not believe in Evolution, but you believe in false churches. I see you have taken the easy path and are believing in a mythical god and that you believe your beliefs make you superior to other people. To understand and believe science and evolution is difficult, but children can believe in gods. As a matter of fact adults and children believe in gods for many of the reasons.

RELIGION IS ABOUT FEAR OF FICTION NOT REALITY
You pretend your mythical friend said “Fear him…he hath…power to case into hell; yea I say unto you, Fear him”. Yep, religion is mostly about fear, and not so much about reality. Cowardliness is the default position. Nice quote mining, it fits my perspective perfectly. This life is the only one you will get, so be as good to yourself and to others while you can. Thanx again.

Reason2012

// So bad things happen for rejecting a god that created us? //

For breaking His laws, yes. Just like bad things happen to us for breaking mankind’s laws.

// It is a good thing that god(s), and therefore sin, are emergent concepts that were naturally developed through evolution as by-products of cognitive mechanisms that evolved for other purposes! //

People are free to believe this. Unfortunately they cannot prove a word of their fish to mankind belief system – they can only give reasons to believe in it as if this proves it, which of course proves nothing.

// There are many parts of the brain that have been identified by the National Institute of Health using functional MRIs that shows that the source of religiosity comes from the same parts of the brain that makes us successfully evolved social animals. //

No one has yet to show we’ve evolved from animals that could not read / write / talk / publish books / design and fly airplanes / pass laws to uphold morals and more, they can only give reasons to believe in it, which then makes the rest of the claims that follow moot since they hinge on it.

// The Backfire Effect is a human bias similar to another human bias called Declinism. Your feeling that things are getting worse in the last 10-20 years //

Highest unemployment rate in decades (if you count those who stopped looking for jobs -which this administration does not count) is not a “feeling” it’s fact.

Race relations being worst than they’ve been in many decades is not a “feeling” it’s a fact.

Increasing number of terrorist acts of war on our own soil with Americans being killed is not a “feeling” it’s a fact.

You can bury your head in the sand and keep telling yourself everything’s fine if you wish, until it’s too late of course.

// You do not believe in Evolution, but you believe in false churches. //

If fish to mankind evolution was science, one wouldn’t need to believe in it. Interesting you unwittingly admit fish to mankind evolution is something that can only be believed in.

But the belief that populations of fish could ‘evolve’ over generations eventually into animals we’d clearly no longer consider fish? anti-science belief, nothing more.

And it’s actually easier to believe we’re animals and when you die that’s it – in this way we can then pretend there are no consequences for our behaviors as long as we do not break mankind’s laws. Have at it – each person will get exactly what they demand from God.

People do not fear getting caught if they run a red light or steal or not pay taxes? If they don’t, they’re foolish. It’s called common sense and being wise.

Do people not “fear” getting caught by their parents when they were kids to face consequences for their actions? No, that’s common sense and wise.

It’s wise to fear your parents if they’re the kind that instill consequences for our behavior.

It’s equally wise to fear God for He will instill consequences we’ll beg Him not to when it’s too late, as we already rejected His offer of forgiveness.

// This short life is the only one you will get, so be as good to yourself and to others while you can. //

You contradict yourself. Spending hours spreading your anti-Christian hate on forums is “being good to others while you can”? You seem to want to hate others while you can and make sure they know it.

If Christians do believe what they believe (even if you do not), then it’s actually a good thing to warn others so they can gain eternal life as well. It would be evil of them to stay silent, fully believing people will end up in_hell and not warning them.

So while you hatefully mock Christians daily, claiming we should “be good to others while we can”, Christians ARE being good to others by warning them of what they honestly think is going to happen, instead of taking the easy road and stay silent believing people will end up there.

Don’t believe it? That’s between each person and God.

Live forever, friend.

DoorknobHead

GOOD GOD, LAWS: there is no good reason and zero evidence to believe in any god myth. Otherwise a Nobel Peace Prize would have been awarded. No good reason ever presented for a god, then no good reason to pretend a person knows what a god’s law might be.

GOOD BELIEF: It does not matter what people believe, reality is reality whether a person believes in it, or has allowed their brain to be hi-jacked into believing untrue things

DENIAL OF REALITY: Mental gymnastics used to pretend a denial of evolution is viable, is, just sad. It reminds me of the situation when a mother holds a dead child in its arms, and can not admit to herself that the child is dead and talks to it like the flame of life still exists within that dead body. I often find the people with this denial of evolution mentality are using sources which have been corrupted and filled with falsehoods that are placed their to promote their false narrative. Just like religion is a bad foundation to understand reality, poor sources of information on understand evolution is a bad foundation of understanding evolution, or even the third option of theistic evolution. Yet when creationists become interested in learning what scientists think evolution is all about, and not just the creationist misinformation, they sometimes become biologists and work in the field, they then realize how many falsehoods creationists must create to believe their untruths. If we could analyze all your social and informational source inputs, we could better understand why your cognition and mental outputs seem to correlate so well with those which most support ISIS.

INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND MACRO TIME: You can bury your head in the sand and tell yourself that the sum total of all human endeavors are in decline by cherry picking items which support your narrative from within the last few decades, if you wish, until it is too late, of course, by being agents against progress, development and accomplishment. Your forgot to mention advancements in regards to slavery, discrimination, medicine, health, mental health, electronics, farming, machinery, and on and on. Sure there are always fall backs, such as the removal of laws since the 1980’s that had successfully kept the economy stable after the great depression and the thinking as found in the 1971 Powell Memo that allowed the elite oligarchy to once again rear it’s ugly head and gain power over citizens of the country to their detriment, but progress is cyclical with two steps forward and one step back here and there.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE IS BAD: You obviously do not understand how science works, and have probably been given corrupted sources of information about science, and especially evolution, that allow you to believe what you do. I guess it really comes down to how important it is for you to believe as many true things as possible, and as few untrue things as possible over believing things which make you feel comforted by your errant thinking. There is overwhelming evidence for evolution while the claims of the bible keep getting pushed back over time and are often proven false. It would be perverse *IF* someone was exposed to the main body of unsullied evidence for evolution, and still had 100% confidence in creationism over evolution. Yet, I suspect you are in a bubble which protects you from unsullied information about evolution — or you are truly perverse. I prefer to give you the benefit of the doubt.

SOCIALLY CORRECT: Your reference to social restrictions placed upon social human animals exist within reality. The cognitive mechanisms activated by thinking of a world of a mythical god and mythical hell is also real within the mind as it activates the same circuits the mind originally adapted through evolution to solve social problems, but the mythical god and the mythical hell themselves are not real. Just like the human brain did not evolve to read, emergent properties of the brain derived from cognitive mechanisms adapted for other purposes allows the human brain to read. Just like a piece of paper is created to write upon, it also can be used to cut a persons finger, something that was not intended during the evolution of paper.

MISGUIDED CHARITY: I understand that christians desire to help other people, I just think they are misguided. To me it is like the soldiers that discovered holocaust survivors and gave them candy bars because they were hungry instead giving them limited amounts of liquids with electrolytes, minerals and supplements and then working up slowly to solid foods to keep them from dying — except in many cases religion is more pernicious. Christians are misguided because the are using an outdated god models of understanding reality. Non believers also want to help the world as they see the negative acts of religion in real time and throughout history. There are some good social aspects of religion which would be good to preserve in a secular form using improved models of understanding reality.

NON-BELIEVERS: NOT ANTI-HUMAN, ANTI BAD IDEAS: You misrepresent many non-believers and how they see their relationship with christians. For many thoughtful non believers, they are not against the humans which believe in old tired ideas, they are against the ideas. It is possible a non-believer does not believe for good reasons, and these may be the people that turn hatred towards people and not the ideas. Of course silly beliefs should always be open to ridicule. For me, it is not hate for believers, but is interesting how people can be 100% confident in a belief and 100% wrong. Even if one belief is 100% correct, this means that many other beliefs all over the world are 100% wrong but people feel 100% confident in their beliefs. I believe the evidence is beginning to show that many beliefs emerge from brains that adapted over time to be social animals. If I have had a religious belief in a god, then my god would be more impressed by those which did not believe in a god due to lack of evidence of god. Also, live forever? Can you not see how that might be a curse?

Reason2012

No good reason to believe in God? NO amount of reasons will convince those who are determined to live in sin. But these reasons will be why they are without excuse when they face God.

For example

Is a prosthetic leg proof of an intelligent designer? Is that not PROOF? Is the information that is then followed to make more of them not proof? Is the ability to decode that information and ACT on it to do what it says to build such a leg also more of the PROOF? Of course it is. Yet we want to pretend the leg itself, which is millions of times more ingenious and complex is NOT proof of an intelligent designer, nor the information encoded in DNA on how to build it, nor that information being decoded and acted upon to build more legs nor that information being copied so it can be used again and again and again.

Not to mention the entire body it’s attached to, the brain that controls it by thoughts, the lung to breath air and air to be breathed, the heart to pump blood and blood to BE pumped, eyes to see, brain to process it and act upon it, ears to hear, brain to process it and act upon it and so many, many more systems. To pretend all of that is NOT proof of an intelligent designer, but a plastic prosthetic limb IS, is just willful ignorance on our part.

Please think again on these things. God offers eternal life, not just life for our brief time here. And we will face Him to be judged for our lifetime of sinning, where the consequences of those sins would be death. But Christ took that punishment for us: God in the flesh. All we have to do is willingly accept that amazing gift: repent (change our mind about sin) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from the coming judgment.

It’s between each person and God, and many false churches keep people blind to that truth by teaching the false claim it’s about works, or church attendance or cleaning up your act and so on.

DoorknobHead

THE ARGUMENT THE COULD LAST FOR ETERNITY
Yes, no reasons on either side will convince either side of a truth they do not understand or can not hold. That is why the religion question remains the greatest argument (and waste of time in many regards) ever.

COUNTER ARGUMENTS AD NAUSEAM
Okay, this is where I say, if it takes a designer to create such complexity, then who created the designer. Then you proceed to utilize a logical fallacy to explain. There are other explanations that are robust and predictive and repeatable and useful which explain how complexity was begat from simplicity. The god theory has no practical utility in the modern world in terms of predictive power, except to predict it will glue people together within social structures that are derivatives of earlier evolved cognitive mechanisms but done used in ways which are perversions of the original problems they were adapted to solve for the individual and the group.

THIS IS IT: THIS IS ALL THERE IS AND ALL THERE EVER WILL BE
God does not offer eternal life, nor eternal damnation since god does not exist. The only life you will ever have is the life you currently have. Once dead, we the mind will not operate and all thoughts will cease for eternity. Though it is nothing to fret about, because death after brief life will be exactly as it was before life. Remember back before you were born? Remember how that felt? and what you thought? Of course you don’t, but for a dead person, eternity and no advancement of time is the same. Death is the ultimate peace for the mind.

I STAND AS A ROBUST ATHEIST WITH FIST IN THE AIR
If it turns out the god in the bible exists (and not just the cherry picked pretty lovey dovey passages) and he has in no way matured, then he is truly my enemy, and I would feel honored to fight against arguable the most (as Dawkins wrote) unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, fillcidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. Yep. Yep. I’ve picked my side, even if there ever arises evidence for a god that matches the characteristics of the god of the bible (see above). I’d rather be moral and try to do what is right while I live regardless of what I am told, instead of being a participant in religion and doing what I am told regardless of what is right.
PEACE

freetexas2

King James version is beautiful, but we need to understand in modern English. “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. But, I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, he is the one to fear.” NLT

Reason2012

Be wary, however. Most of these “modern English” versions have changed in serious ways what parts of the Bible say, and hence it’s not worth it to get the modern English only to have it poisoned in various places.

It’s how the devil works: put small deceptions that people will not notice or will tolerate for some reason – and the poison spreads.

Part of the reason for this corruption is they also rely on different Greek / Hebrew / Aramaic texts that were already corrupted.

Just do a search “XYZ faulty bible translation verses” and read about how things have been drastically changed. Soon you’ll realize the KJV gives the most accurate version of what God really said, rather than what others think it should say, either via the corrupted texts, or more corruption added when they ‘translated’ it to English.

God is not the author of confusion, the devil is – which explains why there are countless English translations now.

Here are some of the bad things NLT does Do we want to read a Bible where the ones who wrote it made such blatant deceptive changes? KJV, while not perfect in its English words in 100% of the places, is by far the most accurate – the details can be worked out by looking at a concordance for the KJV that shows you what Greek / Hebrew / Aramaic word was used to translate into each and every English word in the KJV. Other versions have no such concordance because they’re mostly paraphrased to what the “translater” thinks they meant, which of course is bad news!

It’s time to simply say NO to the FFRF no matter what. If enough groups that are bullied by this group simply refuse to go along with any court edict that sides with the FFRF, what are they going to do? If we don’t stand up now, there’s no end in sight for what they might want to do next.

Tim White

A public school has not choice but to abide by these rules. To do otherwise would be to lose federal funding, which means a great number of them would close.

Ambulance Chaser

Get fined is what they’re going to do.

Rodney Hinds

The government, including public schools, should remain “neutral” on all matters of religion. Displaying the ten commandments at a public school is NOT neutral.

Kelly Samuelson

The kids want it there, so I don’t understand what the problem is. It clearly isn’t ‘offending’ anyone at the school.

Tim White

What the kids want is immaterial.

Ambulance Chaser

The test for whether a state action violates the Establishment Clause doesn’t include determining whether it offends someone.

LadyInChrist♥BlessedBeTheLord

The kids seem to want it . I hope somehow the kids get to keep it displayed. Stop taking everything away from them. These kids seem to be wiser than the adults who are trying to take this away from the kids who wants it to stay.

Tim White

The kids wanting it is immaterial. It’s either going to be removed, or remain covered up. The only other option is to allow every other religion to place similar displays on all of the school’s walls.

Emmanuel

Good to see that the kids are more courageous and brave than adults.

Edward Silha

Are they going to pay the costs of defending the suit and then reimburse the FFRF for its legal costs when the FFRF law suit is successful?

peanut butter

FFRF’s Aunt Fanny!

Ambulance Chaser

Why don’t you start dumping your garbage on your neighbor’s lawn? When he threatens to sue you, you can tell him you’re not afraid because you’re courageous and brave.

DoorknobHead

DRUNK CHILDREN ARE THE ANSWER?
People who drink mass quantities of alcohol become more “courageous and brave” as well. Parts of their minds shut down while other parts become more active. I wonder what these children are “drunk” on? Hmmmm. I wonder….. Hmmmmm

Emmanuel

the Holy Ghost

DoorknobHead

RELIGION: THE EASY PATH
I didn’t think you would go with: religious-ideas as emergent by-products of cognitive mechanisms adapted for other social-problem solving purposes as part of the evolution of social animals which are ingrained through inculcation, avoiding critical thinking, avoiding the understanding of human biases and not allowing for mitigatory countermeasures to human biases. You went the easy myth route. Religion is easy, knowing reality is difficult.

Emmanuel

You are right, religion is easy. Religion are laws passed by man to feel holy without God. A relationship with Jesus/God is difficult. Jesus said himself that this path would not be easy.

DoorknobHead

RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD/JESUS IS MORE THAN DIFFICULT
Religion and laws and gods are created by humans. Yep. Yep. A relationship with Jesus/God is more than difficult, it is impossible since no Jesus/God exists. Jesus probably did not say anything that is attributed to him as he is probably entirely myth, just like all the other god myths that christianity copied. Not only was Jesus not a god, but Jesus probably did not even exist as a regular human being either. All religions generally come down to the brain functioning in extracurricular ways that although relate to the social nature of humans are misapplied by the human mind to non existing agents. It might be more accurate to say you are having a relationship with yourself, by developing the mythical realm within you mind with which you relate.

Emmanuel

As a holder of a psychology degree, I have to disagree with you. I believe we are made of three entities; mind, body and spirit. Mind and body are easy to explain. You are an expert of these two as I can read. The spirit is where many fall short or deny. That is ok. When a person addresses and resolves their spirit person that is when reality sets in. Just keep in mind, God is a spirit and we worship him with our spirit being. You, as a person, probably do not believe that you have a spirit person in you, that is perfect fine, but many of us believe. And because we do, we are ridiculed and made fun of. But, just remember, when you come to grips with your spirit person, you will see why it’s harder to worship God.

DoorknobHead

APPEAL TO AUTHORITY
Aw, your appeal to authority (as someone stating they have a psychology degree) bore no fruit for me. My interest was initially piqued, but then you provided no psychological based analysis or references to peer reviewed studies, but instead only provided what I might consider mumbo-jumbo speak. Maybe later I might hear a perspective using the lingo and knowledge specific to a psychology degree. As a kid I read several psychology books that described case studies and it was fascinating. I was more of a text-book reader than a fiction book reader during a time during my youth.

ON A PERSONAL PATH OF LIFE-LONG LEARNING
Just to be clear, I am no expert as I parrot many of my comments after doing only informal personal research on the subject of acquired beliefs. I often draw directly from my notes. I am just a fella interested in understanding why people believe things with high confidence when low confidence is the most reasonable position, especially in the internet-age when people can easily be made to quickly fall 100% for all kinds of fictions. It is a road of discovery for me just like with many people who get into psychology and are trying to better understand issues they may have with themselves. It is part of a quest that I had stopped decades ago, once I had become a robust atheist, which I only picked up again after some people crashed some planes into some buildings.

RIDICULE’S ROLE WITHIN THE FREE MARKET OF IDEAS
Ridicule is part of social evolution of the market place of ideas and no idea should be immune to ridicule. Religion has held itself in a place immune from ridicule for quite some time using concepts of holiness, sanctity, discrimination, hate and sometimes physical force against others who do not hold the same beliefs. Religions sanctity is unjustified. I try to not attack the person directly, but instead their ideas, but since I am human, I do sometimes slip or do not concern myself with taking precautions against being misinterpreted by others that are biased to believe I have ill will against them.

HUMAN BIASES; CONFIRMATION BIAS
I agree with you disagreeing with me, but I disagree with your concepts of spirituality, and I don’t think your degree gives any support for your god belief. As a matter of fact, a degree in psychology should have exposed you to a list of human biases that humans suffer from on a daily basis, which when applied correctly should create more doubt within you about how you have come to your conclusions about anything supernatural, such as god, for which there is no evidence. Maybe you maintained strong levels of confirmation bias during your studies of psychology and only noticed the subjects of the exceedingly religiously minded and some minor benefits that they may accrue.

DoorknobHead

TODAY’S LESSON: THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND HOW RELIGION TREATED RELIGION WHEN GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION WAS NOT SEPARATED

o Oh this side, in skins: The Shia. On this side in shirts: The Sunni. Okay use the force of government and laws to discriminate against each other….GO!

o On this side, in skins: The Mormons. On this side in long white shirts: The Catholics. On this side in stripes: The Danbury Baptists: On this side in pink: The Creationists. Okay, use the force of government and laws to discriminate against each other….GO! …okay, what have we learned?

Let’s see if it turns out like it did before the First Amendment…

sammy13

No tax funding for deliberate, wanton murder.

getstryker

Different subject but I agree with your comment.

peanut butter

The FFRF needs to be banned from any public buildings. Even if the schools receive federal funds, these schools are still funded with taxpayer money. The Founding Fathers never intended religion to be excluded from school. Quite the contrary, since the first schools used the Bible as a textbook. All you atheists and FFRF’ers stick that in your pipes and smoke it. I don’t care WHAT the SCOTUS has misinterpreted, the facts of our history prove otherwise.

BW

Even if the schools receive federal funds, these schools are still funded with taxpayer money.

That would include the money of non-Christians.

I don’t care WHAT the SCOTUS has misinterpreted

You should, if you’re facing a possible lawsuit like this school.

Ambulance Chaser

“All you atheists and FFRF’ers stick that in your pipes and smoke it. I don’t care WHAT the SCOTUS has misinterpreted, the facts of our history prove otherwise.”

Even if you were correct that the Founding Fathers wanted a Christian nation, the Founders’ desires are not what governs law in this country. Supreme Court rulings do.

peanut butter

“Even if you were correct that the Founding Fathers wanted a Christian nation, the Founders’ desires are not what governs law in this country. Supreme Court rulings do.”
The founders came up with a plan to keep the laws of the land the way they intended. It’s called the ‘Constitution’. Scotus misinterpretations have put us in the place we are now, no matter what you say.
And by the way, I just cut and pasted your words to show you how stupid it looks when YOU do it.

Ambulance Chaser

“The founders came up with a plan to keep the laws of the land the way they intended. It’s called the ‘Constitution'”

And who determines what the Constitution says on a given issue? SCOTUS.

“Scotus misinterpretations have put us in the place we are now, no matter what you say.”

I’m confused about why you think I would disagree with that. I do say that, other than the word “misinterpretations.” That’s actually my entire point. SCOTUS has ruled, and that’s why the law is what it is. Thank you for agreeing with me.

“And by the way, I just cut and pasted your words to show you how stupid it looks when YOU do it.”

Is this your first day on the internet? You’ve really never seen someone quoting text to provide context to their answers before?

peanut butter

Yeah… atheists and those who like to argue/agitate. And I wasn’t agreeing with you. I meant what I said. What is it that you don’t understand about the word misinterpretation? You must really be a lawyer. You think you can twist words and get an honest result. Pure dishonesty… to yourself. Lying to yourself will get you nowhere. Flattering yourself… same result.

Ambulance Chaser

What, exactly, is the point you’re trying to make here?

peanut butter

Point made. Get out your dictionary and thesaurus.

Ambulance Chaser

It was? When?

I’m asking you to just start over. Start fresh. Summarize, as simply as possible, the point you’re trying to make.

John D

Neutrality is a dangerous illusion. If you rid the public square of Christ, the Muslims will move in as they already have in “Neutral” Europe and even parts of Michigan. Your neutrality will do you no good then. You will be under sharia law and you will like it because not liking it will have your head cut of.

Shagnassy

Jesus said “if you deny me before man I will deny you before the Father”. If the government can take God away from society then the government will take more and more away from the people of this “free” nation. I said “free” because we aren’t a free nation any longer… It’s time to wake up people and smell the coffee. If you don’t you might just wake up in a FEMA camp some day. Watch the video where Hillary says their should be camps for adults…. And the camps are already there and waiting to be filled. You will have no rights whatsoever so you better be fighting on the side of the Lord because He is coming back soon… I if you don’t believe me then just read Revelations…. For those of you that don’t know what that is-it’s the final chapter in the Bible.

Get Breaking Christian News in Your Inbox!

Sign Me Up! Top Daily Top Weekly

Christian News Headlines

Keep your site fresh and your visitors coming back by featuring Christian News Network's top news stories on your site. Learn more →

Connect With Us:

Learn More

About Christian News Network

Christian News Network provides up-to-date news and information affecting the body of Christ worldwide from an uncompromising Biblical worldview. Our objective is to present the news with the word of God as our lens, and to bring to light what is hid in the darkness. Learn more →